Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1887-06-04
THE REASON THEREOF.

The kEASUN 1hEhEOEs
That the extraordinary commercial and
industrial development of the age has
created an ever-increasing demand for
the precious metals is e self-evident
proposition.
Some conception OF the immensity OF
this demand can be gained by the scale
Of ofcomparison. In the year 1900 forty or
ffty million pounds sterling was all the
money rhc- world had coined from the
precious metals, and an annual product
of one hundred thousand pounds
sterling sufficed. Four centuries later, in
our own time, a single COustock mine
has paid as high as four hundred thou
sand pounds sterling monthly in divi-
dends. This one comparison is amply
sufficient to automatically demonstrate
the vast monetary increase required by
advancing years and development, and
the enormous demand made on the
precious metals by the colossal financial
transactions OF modern times.
Gold alone cannot meet this de-
mand. There is not enough of
it. The unequal struggle re-
suits in financial disaster. We have a
contraction Of the currency and fall in
prices. And why is this? Simply be-
cause the world, in its blind adhesion to
the arrogant and incapable gold power,
refuses the aid Of silver. The precious
white metal, strong in its power to save,
has been demonetized, and the slightest
falling off in the product OF gold brings
financial contraction and distress.
The depression of silver has been
accompanied by a decline in prices,
and for many years manufac-
lures have had to face falling market ::
the products of labor have failed to find
labor's equivalent. The price OF mer-
chandise, and the price OF silver have
about kept pace with each other, while
gold has advanced to a great and ty-
ranical premium. Thus, as silver has
declined, so has mercantile values. As
gold has advanced, so has contraction
frightened its grip. Silver registers the
value of merchandise. Gold registers
only its own oppressive record. A de-
cline in silver is the synonym Of
National and financial disaster, for it
unerringly indicates a corresponding
decline in all OF the products of industry.
This is certain 1t is also certain that
there will be floating prices as long as
there is floating silver.
Hence, it follows that to restore the
financial equilibrium Of the world, silver
must be restored. Bi-metallism is the
only remedy. The total product OF
both the precious metals would not
be more than sufficient to supply
the demands of the far-reach-
ing and intense business activities
of the day and generation. The double
standard is the only shield the world can
iaterpose between it and commercial de-
pression-between it and financial calam-
ity. 1t may be accepted as a modern
financial axiom that no scarcity of either
of the precious metals can exist without
that scarcity being at once pointed out by
the finger OF disaster. The precious
metals are indispensable to each other
and to the world.
In a recent article in the FOrtnightLg
RerieU, Mr.. Fen. ucks Gibbs, one OF
the most emineul ". the economists OF
the day, thus deals with the relations OF
the precious metals 70 each other and
the needs of 4 world:
"If the output OF .tAer metal greatly
increased, and if lis int ease was not
compensated by falling Of q the out
put OF the other, the joint r)duct OF the
two metals would augment the measure
of value in the world; and if this were in
greater proportion than the 'lcrease oi
population and commodities demanded,
prices would rise!
"It the production Of ci.her metal
greatly diminished, and the decrease
was not balanced by a simultaneous in
crease In the other, population and COM
modities not having decreased also,
prices aUould fall!
off the production OF both metals
simultaneously increased or diminished,
prices would rise or fall accordingly, and
the rise or fall would be greater than in
the two former cases. The effect on
prices in this last case would be the same
as that which is now produced in the
gold countries by an increased or dimin-
ished influx of gold, and in the silver
Countries by an increased or diminished
iufiuX of silver.
"Inasmuch, then, as the chances are
against a simultaneous increase or de-
crease OF both metals, it follows that the
fluctuations caused by increase or de-
crease of production of the precious met
ais are more frequent under our present
system wiz, the English monometallic
system) than they would be under com
prehensive bi-metallic union"
nUMnrU UAnIC DrnODM